Modern automatic manufacturing processes frequently require relatively sophisticated materials handling mechanisms to assure an uninterrupted flow of raw materials and finished products through the system. The present invention relates to a novel materials handling system which is particularly applicable but not necessarily restricted to the handling of cup-shaped workpieces such as containers of the types used in packaging beverages and other liquids for general consumption.
A workpiece processing system of the type to which the present invention is applicable is described in United States patent application Ser. No. 774,923, filed Nov. 12, 1968, now U.S. Pat. No. 3,664,354 for "Method and Apparatus for Processing Workpieces", which is assigned to the same assignee as the present invention. In the system and apparatus as described in the aforementioned application, workpieces of a generally elongated configuration are introduced into a confined stream flowing through a conduit. The workpieces become entrained in the fluid stream and are conveyed and simultaneously treated during their travel through the conduit. A plurality of such treatments can be successively effected by extracting and introducing the workpieces into separate conduits, each containing a fluid of the required treating characteristics.
In accordance with the foregoing arrangement, the workpieces such as cup-shaped preliminarily formed containers suitable for packaging beverages and the like, travel longitudinally through the conduits at spaced intervals and at relatively high rates of speed. At one or more stages of the processing of such workpiece containers, it is necessary to change the orientation of the workpieces relative to their direction of travel such as from a position in which the longitudinal axis of the containers is disposed parallel to the direction of travel to a position in which the containers roll on their circular cylindrical periphery in a direction transverse to their longitudinal axes. Such a reorientation in the position and direction of travel of the workpieces may be required several times during the course of the processing cycle to attain optimum processing efficiency.
A continuing problem has heretofore been presented in providing a positive, simple and durable transfer device which is effective to change the position and direction of travel of workpieces moving at capacities of 600 per minute and greater without occasioning any damage or injury to such workpieces. This long-felt, heretofore unfilled need is supplied by the transfer mechanism of the present invention.